Premiere Pro (Build 85) Cannot run MXF Raw files

[Bacuba13]

Hi there,

I've spent a lot of time trying to figure out an issue with working with raw MXF files in Premiere Pro. I'm working on Windows 11 with Nvidia RTX 4090.

For some reason whenever I import raw MXF files from any camera, it hangs up premiere and immedietly crashes the program. I uninstalled GeForce experience, and it still happens. These MXF files run just fine in Avid or Switch Player. As well as in After Effects (latest build). So something is going on with Premiere. 

I'm wondering if this is an issue with the 4090? Has anyone else had this problem? 

The MXF files import and play fine in Premiere on my mac. It's just on my PC.

Thanks so much. 

[Bacuba13]

UPDATE: I have tried using MXF Raw files on the following programs and they all work just fine: Adobe After Effects, Adobe Premiere Rush, Davinci Resolve, Avid Media Composer. 

The only programs having issues with MXF files is Premiere Pro and Media Encoder. Please help if you have a moment. Thank you!!

[mattchristensen]

@Bacuba13 Could you share which video codec your files are using? MXF is the container format, but what is the video codec? If you have a small sample clip you'd be willing to share (WeTransfer or Dropbox link or something like that) I can also try on my end. Thanks!

[Bacuba13]

Thank you so much for getting in touch Matt!

I did a lot of research and tests during the weekend since this is causing a hang up at our post house. Here is what I found to help answer your questions:

1. All MXF file types either crash or hang Premiere Pro if the following is happening:

- A MXF (of any codec) is drag and dropped from Windows Explorer into Premiere Pro.

- If an old project used the drag and drop method from Windows Explorer of importing MXF files, opening it up again will hang and freeze Premiere Pro leading to a crash. Basically a bricked project (this happened to be luckily on a test project).

- A MXF (of any codec) is showing within the "Create a new Project" Screen section where you can choose items to start a project. Premiere will just hang, freeze, and crash.

- If you open a Premiere Pro project (with MXF files) from the desktop or anywhere else on the computer it will hang and freeze/crash. In order for it to work and only work you have to open it after you startup Premiere and go to File -> Open... This is the only way I have gotten projects to open with MXF files already in it that were imported via Media Browser.

2. Premiere Pro will not crash or freeze if you use Media Browser to drag and drop a MXF (of any codec) into Premiere Pro. 
3. Premiere Pro will not crash if you use Media Browser and open it with File -> Open.. Once Premiere is running.

I cannot upload my MXF files because they are under NDA etc. However you can use any MXF file. I also tested this with the Arri sample footage on their website and it happens. I also contacted them about this and they are looking into it.

Here are my specs:
Windows 11 Pro
Version 23H2
Processor   13th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-13900KF   3.00 GHz
RAM   64.0 GB
GPU Nvidia RTX 4090
Running the latest Premiere Pro (tested this on all current versions and the problem persits)

Also, there has been issues of this with other Adobe Premiere Windows users. Please keep us updated on this serious issue!

Thank you so much Matt!!

[Bacuba13]

Lastly, here is a link to the Adobe forum post having this same issue that I found (without a resolution): forum post

[Bacuba13]

@mattchristensen 

Hey there Matt,

Were you able to test this with arri sample footage from their website or any mxf file? I cannot upload my footage for contract reasons. 

Also, please note that it looks like people reporting this problem are using Windows 11 pro. Could that be part of the issue? Also I see we all are using NVIDIA gpus. Maybe it's a driver issue?

Please let me know. 

Thanks so much!

[Bacuba13]

@mattchristensen 
Any update on this?

[MyerPj]

Maybe you could do the research and find a link to a sample mxf file the exhibits the problem. 

[mattchristensen]

@Bacuba13 Thanks for reminding me about this, I'm sorry I didn't get back to you since the holiday break.

So far I'm not seeing any issues on my system. I'm using:

• Windows 11 22H2
• Premiere Pro (Beta) 24.3 build 12
• Intel Core i7 13850HX
• 64 GB RAM
• NVIDIA RTX 5000 Ada Generation Laptop GPU
• NVIDIA Driver 31.0.15.3758 (from October 2023)

I tried with three sample MXFs from Arri, some were ARRIRAW, some ProRes.

When Premiere Pro crashes for you or you need to force quit, do you ever get an Adobe dialog box about submitting a crash report? If so you can put your email address in the email box in that and I can search for your report in our system.

[MyerPj]

I'm not sure the link below will work, but that's what chrome gives me after the fact.

I downloaded the clip (3.4gb) dropped it in to a newish project from File Explorer, dropped it onto the create sequence icon in the project manaager, played the new sequence with no issues.

VLC would not play it, Potplayer tried, but it didn't play it either.

EDIT: yes, download seems to work fine

Download an ARRI MXF file. 3.4gb

[Bacuba13 · Accepted solution]

@mattchristensen 
Thanks so much for getting in touch. I actually found a solution to my problem through Adobe technical support and have posted the solve below. It was confimred from support our concerns were true and he witnessed them, these concerns being that all MXF files were locking up Premiere. However the solution was permissions. 

From tech support: 
"This email is in reference to the case regarding the "Adobe Premiere Pro MXF file import issue" 
As confirmed on our call today the issue has been resolved by granting permissions to Adobe folders individually from file explorer during our call or you can go with the Run as Administrator option."

All of my Adobe folders for some reason were "read only" or some permissions were not set to "allow". This was causing issues with all MXF files of all codecs within Premiere. I'm not sure why this didn't matter for any other wrapper, but I'm so glad it's fixed since I'm curretnly on a job with all arri MXF files.

Thanks for following up. I hope this post can be marked as "solved" and provide remedy for others who have posted on this board for the same issue.

[Bacuba13]

@MyerPj 

Thanks so much MyerPj for checking! I just got off the phone with Adobe support and it looks like it was a permissions problem. He changed those and now everything is working perfectly. I explained everything in the post above to hopefully help others who have posted prior to mine with this same issue.

[MyerPj]

That's unusual for Windows machines. What folder were the files in?

For the record, my system is much like yours, but with a 12th gen and 4070, running on Win11 22H2, PP 24.1

[Dami297397685n0k]

For me was not a permission issue.

I solved this (temporarily) by holding shift when starting Premiere, and resetting the user preferences (first option)

The footage was coming from a Sony FS5 on .MXF container. 

[Bacuba13]

@MyerPj  It just was on a production hdd G Raid. It did this though no matter where the MXFs lived.

@Dami297397685n0k 

Hmm, that is odd. I'm not sure what could be going on for your issue. Thankfully for me, the permanant fix was permissions. I haven't had a problem since. Glad you found a temp fix -- it's horribly frustrating not being able to properly edit with supported media.

[lenjaminbang1]

Thanks so much for sharing the solution!

[IGNAZIO363525255sqm]

Scusami ma non capisco come fare quello che dici, puoi fare un video e farci vedere come impostare i permessi? Grazie